Soo… Did you get the range? How do you like it?
Here is 1/12th of a dozen people that think induction has gotten much better in recent years. I had induction in a rented flat 15 years ago and it sucked, I have induction now and it is great.
Wondering how your kitchen renovation is progressing. Any regrets yet?
No regrets so far. As is typical in Hawaii, things are taking much longer than scheduled - we still don’t have kitchen cabinet doors yet. The new appliances are to be delivered on December 11. But the new quartzite counters are a dream.
Report? Did we mislead you?
All is good - but the kitchen still isn’t fully done. When it is, I’ll post before and after photos. They said we’d have a complete new kitchen before Thanksgiving, but we still don’t have cabinet doors.
Meanwhile, the new induction range is installed, and it isn’t too hard to get used to. Of course, now I have a lot fewer pots and pans I can use, but it is educational to see that I don’t actually need as many as I thought. I haven’t gotten any adaptor disks yet, as the reviews seem mediocre on the ones I’ve looked at.
Anyway, I’m happy with it. In addition to the speed with which it heats and cools, it is very easy to keep clean, which is really nice.
Congrats. Next time I buy a range it’s going to be induction. And I’m not going to wait until this conventional glass top range no longer works.
And just 20 minutes ago, I discovered another valuable feature. I was making bread dough, and it occurred to me that the oven has about five gajillion settings (I’ve already used the convection, which is nice for putting multiple cookie trays in the oven at the same time) - so maybe it has a bread proofing setting?
It does! That’s great as I usually use sourdough starter, which is a bit more finicky and slower than commercial yeast. I’ve gotten used to nursing it along by proofing in the microwave along with a big container of hot water. That works, but it’s tedious to heat the water first, then fit everything into the microwave. Proofing in the oven is much easier!
The New York Times Wirecutter section has a review (paywalled, I believe) of an interesting new induction range.
It’s expensive with the cheapest version costing $6,000 and it’s only available in limited quantities. What it does offer is that it only needs a 120V outlet unlike the 240V outlet needed by most electric ranges. It does this by including battery storage in the bottom, where most ranges have a storage drawer.
So when not in use, the batteries recharge and in use, they’re discharged to provide more power than can be provided by the 120V outlet. The review mentions that the range can be used even in a power outage.
So not for everyone but if your house has limited power available, it might be worth considering. There are also condensing clothes dryers available that use heat pump technology to dry the clothes and also need only 120V power. So between these two technologies, you could have two fewer 240V appliances in your house. And if you were thinking of adding an electric car charger, these technologies might free up enough capacity to allow that.
Again, not for everyone, but an interesting idea.
That’s pretty brilliant. After the tax incentive it would really make sense for someone who wants induction but doesn’t have 220v.
Right. And depending on the cost of adding a 220V circuit, it might be cheaper. Or if you’re reaching capacity. (I think someone here said their home only had 60 amp service.)
Not to mention cost of operation.
I have gas and it is soooo much cheaper to operate than electric. Dunno why but electric where I live is expensive. I saw my recent power bill after we have had some cold weather and my electric air heaters are breaking the bank. Almost considering using my stove to heat the place (I won’t, I know not to but the notion has crossed my mind).
Of course, that happens to be where I live. YMMV.
Well, cost of operation should be the same as 220v–you’re just spreading it out over time charging the battery. Induction is extremely efficient–almost zero heat gets wasted. Our cooktop could in theory pull 11,000 watts with all five burners in use…
Electric heating is near 100% efficient (maybe actually 100%…we recently had a little debate over that here recently…if not 100% it is close). That does not mean it is inexpensive.
I don’t have the scientific knowledge to wade into the details of relative efficiency in terms of heat loss, but I will say that the induction stove heats food faster than any gas or electric stove I’ve ever used. So along the time dimension, induction is definitely the most efficient.
Yes, electric heat is 100% efficient in producing heat not necessarily transferring it to the pot. If you can feel heat from the burner, it’s wasted.
Induction is by far the most efficient method to put heat into a pot/pan.
But, depending on your cost of electricity vs gas, it may not (necessarily) be the least expensive.
You’d have to look at your local energy rates.
Also, it mostly comes down to what your kitchen has been built for. Changing from one energy source to another is likely very expensive.
We were using gas, which was very cheap. But it wasn’t very expensive to add a 240v outlet when we got a new stove.
And we’re drawing our power from our newly installed solar panels, so the electricity is “free.” (Of course, installing the panels was expensive, which is why I put “free” in scare quotes.)
I return to state the induction range is still awesome, though I have quibbles about the particular model I chose (but I had limited options here in Hawai’i; I’ll tell you my concerns in hopes you have more options if you are in the lower 48).
First … photos. I don’t actually think the visuals are significantly better, although they are certainly different. They simply illustrate, to the discerning eye, why the new range is better: first, I no longer have the irritating piece in the back that prevented me from keeping larger pots on the stove. Second, the annoying gap in the back has been closed up. If I so choose, I can put up more hooks to hang convenient cooking tools, without worrying that they will fall into the side or back gap.
As for the new quartzite, it looks a lot better in real life as the photo doesn’t totally capture how tired the yellowish linoleum counters looked. And it is wonderful for use - I now knead bread/roll out pastry dough directly on the counter, which is smooth and cool and perfect for such use.
So, photo before:
Photo after:
Now, the actual Frigidaire stove model I choose: um, it has flaws that seems to me to be easily corrected (though perhaps at a higher price). Choosing the heat level requires nimble, small fingers. There is a 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9 display, and you need to carefully select the one you want. Even with my small fingers, I often end up with 4 or 6 instead of 5. A keypad would be much better, or failing that, a > and < option to raise or lower the setting.
Not a big deal for me: I can make it work, and I’m just grateful I was able to get a decent induction range here in the boonies of East Hawai’i on the Big Island.
Further, on the induction adaptor: I finally got one, and it is FANTASTIC. I do not need to replace any of my cookware. I bought a large one, and it works a charm. Am going to get a smaller one, and not worry about new pots and pans. With one exception (a ridiculously large Teflon saucepan), all are just fine.
I am happy.
ETA: second photo is squished, I don’t know why. I’ve seen that bug before in these parts. Ya’ll can mentally compensate, I’m sure.
We have a low-end Frigidaire induction stove with > and < controls and I hate how they’re implemented. If your pot is boiling over, you have to
- hold down < until you get to a number you think will be low enough,
- let go,
- wait a beat,
- then it lowers the power and (hopefully) the pot stops boiling over.
It’s infinitely more responsive than a traditional electric range, but it’s glacial compared to gas. I’m not aware of any law of physics that requires it to be this way; it’s just badly implemented.
If you’re happy, I’m happy! Induction isn’t for me, but you bought your stove for you. 
Thanks for sharing your experience and insights with the replacement process.